The American Bookseller’s Association is apologizing for including Abigail Shrier’s best-selling book, “Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters” in its July promotional mailing to approximately 750 retail outlets.
After receiving backlash from both members and Twitter rubberneckers, the 121-year-old organization, issued a lengthy statement, saying, “An anti-trans book was included in our July mailing to members. This is a serious, violent incident that goes against ABA’s ends policies, values, and everything we believe and support. It is inexcusable.”
The statement went on, “We apologize to our trans members and to the trans community for this terrible incident and the pain we caused them. We also apologize to the LGBTQIA+ community at large, and to our bookselling community. Apologies are not enough. We’ve begun addressing this today and are committed to engaging in the critical dialogue needed to inform concrete steps to address the harm we caused. Those steps will be shared in the next three weeks.”
As the Daily Wire previously reported, Shrier’s book, which was published by conservative publisher Regnery in 2020, has been subjected to speech suppression before. In November, Target announced it was removing the book after a complaint from an LGBTQ activist. After public backlash, the retail giant reversed course, saying the book was back on shelves.
Since that time, however, the company has quietly removed the book again. A search of Target’s website shows the title is no longer available.
Walmart, too, no longer sells the book, despite its best-seller status, and activists are pressuring Amazon to drop the title as well. NBC News reported that at least two Amazon employees have resigned over the tech giant’s decision to continue stocking it.
Shrier, a graduate of Yale Law School who has written for the Wall Street Journal and Newsweek, blasted the ABA’s response on Twitter, saying, “If there were a Hall of Fame for capitulations to Woke bullies, the American Booksellers Association is hereby inducted. The ‘serious, violent incident’ they perpetrated? Including my book in a large box of new book samples sent out to independent booksellers.”
She later added, “The book-banning Left is a totalitarian movement. It has no use for an open, liberal society with a broad diversity of viewpoints, and it will use shame, fear, and coercion to win. It can’t be harmonized with Liberalism.”
A number of journalists came to Shrier’s defense, with Spectator editor and best-selling author Douglas Murray saying, “[Abigail Shrier’s] work is not an ‘anti-trans’ book. It is an important work on a serious issue. Shame on you [ABA] for being such cowards, and for joining this ugly, growing trend of bullying and defaming female authors.”
Psychology professor and author Geoffrey Miller said, “American Booksellers Association is having a craven, gutless meltdown about mentioning a book by [Abigail Shrier] that some woke activists don’t like. If you think the American publishing industry defends freedom of thought, you are delusional.”
Finally, freelance journalist Edie Wyatt responded directly to the ABA’s claim that Shrier’s words are tantamount to violence. “Carving young girls up for an ideology is violent,” she said. “Opposing that is not violence.”